Hi,

I've got a Bravo T-JET 150 Sport (08) that had a cambelt/water pump replacement yesterday. This morning, when I was topping up the wiper fluid, I noticed that the engine coolant level was sitting quite abit below minimum.

I spoke to one the techs at the FIAT dealership where I had the work done who said they flushed the coolant yesterday and re-filled but didn't have time to let it cool down and re-check so just top it up and all should be fine. Following his advice, I found some engine coolant in the garage this morning and topped the coolent level upto just below max.

However, after finishing the top up, I realised that I'd put blue engine coolant in rather than pink which was already in the tank. I've heard that mixing the different colour anti-freezes can do some bad things to the coolent system, is this correct?? If it can cause a problem, what is the best thing to do? I'm fairly novice when it comes to mechanical stuff so not sure if draining the coolant etc. is beyond me.

Any advice would be very much appreciated.

Cheers,
Callum.

I'm pretty sure the color on the coolant is purely aesthetic so that no one confuses it for drinking water.

I also had to mix my coolant with one from another color a long time ago and nothing bad ever happened.

It can cause issues, ask fiat what coolant they used and check the chemical basis is the same. Its poor of them not to have finished the job properly tbh

Aye, you should have taken it back and got them to top it up there and then.

Shame on them for doing a half arsed job.

Thanks for the responses.

In hindsight, I probably should have taken it back and got them to do the job properly, but my local FIAT garage is unfortunately not particularly close and is a bit of a ball ache to get to.

I've checked the coolant I used and it's based on ethylene glycol, which is the same as the PARAFLU stuff I think FIAT use. So as far as I can tell, that means it's ok (I think)?!

I'm tempted to take it back on Saturday and get them to drain it and re-fill with proper stuff, and make sure it's all done properly this time. Especially considering the FIAT person I spoke to told me to top it up with anything!

Cheers,
Callum

Its quite common for the coolant level to take a while to settle after a refill because of air locks in the system.
I wouldnt get too stressed over using a small amount of blue in red . We did this on our Stilo 1.4 and it suffered no ill effects and its still running fine four years later.There is a liklihood of the mixture gelling, or so Im told, but we didnt have that problem - at least nothing that was noticeable . If you are really concerned then try your luck with the garage.

There's a reference here for guidance on different types
http://www.bluecol.co.uk/index.cfm?page=75